316 The National Geographic Magazine 



Map No. 6. The Air and Water Currents of the Pacific (see page 317) 



land to the Pacific littoral, 

 and, on the other hand, the sudden ap- 

 pearance of the United States coming 

 oversea and establishing herself in a 

 large, populous, and important archi- 

 pelago on the borders of Asia." In 

 closing this discussion Mr Colquhoun 

 adds these significant words : ' ' The 

 United States, in the opinion of the 

 writer, will be the dominant factor in 

 the mastery of the Pacific. She has all 

 the advantages, qualifications, and some 

 of the ambitions necessary for the role, 

 and her unrivaled resources and fast- 

 increasing population provide the ma- 

 terial for future greatness." 



These words from this high authority, 

 a representative of the present chief 

 factor in the trade of the Orient, are 



significant, and they become more so 

 when considered in conjunction with a 

 map which I now present, illustrating 

 the position of Manila as a distributing 

 point for the commerce of that great 

 semicircle of countries stretching from 

 Bering Strait to Australasia, containing 

 half the population of the earth and 

 importing a hundred million dollars' 

 worth of merchandise every month of 

 the year. 



I come now to my final proposition — 

 that in certain great natural conditions, 

 conditions which are as unchangeable 

 as. the oceans and the continents and 

 the revolution of the earth itself, nature 

 has given to the United States marked 

 advantages regarding the movements of 

 vessels between her western shores and 



